Giving our pets names is part of the excitement, isn’t it? The Blue Orpington could be Beulah or Opal. The Light Sussex, Susie. I thought Sylvia might suit the Silver-laced Wyandotte, but my daughter Prisy prefers Dot. We have not thought of a name for a Barred Rock.

Prisy and I disagreed on my choice for the Black Orpington, however.

Should it be Orpah or Oprah? Prisy said that I should not name her Oprah because she is a Black Orpington, because people would think I was racist. Now I had not even connected Oprah’s ‘blackness’ with the blackness of the bird till Prisy mentioned it. My thoughts behind the name were firstly that it sounds like Orpington, and the fact that Oprah the woman was fashionable and popular.

But now that blackness had been mentioned, I am itching to name my gorgeous gloriously-black bird Oprah. Moreover, the rather plain-sounding Orpah might suit a Buff Orpington, but surely a dashing Black Orpington has to be Oprah. (Black Orpington Vs Buff Orpington) I haven’t decided yet, and one in five, I won’t get to own a Black Orpington this time.